


A Mirror Into Our Selves

by TaraHarkon



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Sacrifice, Sickness, Wonderland
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-04 21:03:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15849324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaraHarkon/pseuds/TaraHarkon
Summary: A day comes when the two young adventurers who walk into Wonderland bring back memories Edward and Lydia had tried to keep buried. This is what happens.





	A Mirror Into Our Selves

Edward liked to watch as the hopeful approached Wonderland. Often, they were excited about their potential prizes or boasting about how they would best the challenges within. Sometimes, though, things were different. Sometimes, the hopeful adventurers were rightfully scared, sometimes they seemed to know more than they did. Today, a pair walked towards Wonderland hand in hand, casting nervous glances towards the billboards. Curious now, he called on the power of the bell hidden deep in the heart of Wonderland. Who were they? What did they seek? He couldn't tell just yet. Then they stepped towards a door and he knew.

* * *

Braden and Mara exchanged a look as little Kyara started coughing again. They knew they had to do something but they also knew there was nothing they could do. They had tried all the local healers, they had tried every ounce of magic that they knew. They had tried the clerics in the temple on the edge of town and the druid woman in her cabin in the woods. Nothing had worked. And then... and then they heard the stories. There was a place deep in the heart of the Felicity Wildes that claimed to have anything you could possibly desire as long as you could defeat their challenges. So they had bought a suit of cheap armor for Mara and Braden had taken up his battered spellbook and wand. He wasn't more than an apprentice, he hadn't even specialized yet, but they knew they had to do something. Wonderland was the only choice they had left.

* * *

Lydia stayed close to Edward as the latest pair of adventurers walked in together. They were humans and so very young, teenagers really. Neither of them looked comfortable with the weapons in their hands and Edward felt something stirring in him he hadn't felt in a very long time. As he reached to rest his hand on Lydia's shoulder, he knew she was thinking of the same thing, of an elven child with a bright smile and a heart as big as the entire world, a boy for whom they had done many things and would have done anything.

"We still have to challenge them, Eddie." Lydia's voice was quiet. "Even though... We still have to give them a challenge. This is Wonderland."

It tugged at his heartstrings that she used his childhood name and he nodded, returning hers in kind.

"I know, Lili, and we will. But perhaps... easier than usual. You saw everything, didn't you?" She nodded slowly and put her hand on his and he kept talking. "Anyway, we do need some people to win our little game."

He said it, even though they never had before, even though people always came to them just fine without the word of mouth. But they looked down at the brother and sister who had walked in hand in hand as though they looked through a mirror to their past. Lydia nodded and squeezed Edward's hand.

"Come on. We still have to go put on a show, even if we're going to let them win."

* * *

Braden nearly jumped out of his own skin as a pair of high elves appeared before them on a catwalk. They were standing back to back and posing dramatically, the lights flashing around them as music started to pound somewhere distant.

"Welcome to Wonderland, darlings!"

"I hope you're ready-"

"-And excited to get started."

Mara squeezed her brother's hand and nodded. 

"We're ready for whatever challenges you've got for us, if you really have the cure."

Edward held his hand out, a small vial of purplish fluid appearing in it.

"As promised. Now, all you have to do is beat our little game."

Lydia sat on the edge of the catwalk and leaned forward, her hands on her knees.

"But that shouldn't be too hard, now should it?"

Braden nodded and adjusted his grip on his wand. Then he glanced at his sister in her patchwork leather armor. They would do their best and they would stick together. That was all they could do, after all.

* * *

Lydia felt sick as the pair approached the Wheel of Sacrifice.  _No_ , she wanted to scream.  _Not for them!_  They were already risking so much by being here, by following in this path. She wanted to hug the poor girl who was already bruised and battered just from wearing the armor that was too large for her. She wanted to sit her down and promise her that everything would be alright, the way it hadn't been for them. Maybe... maybe they could... But no, Wonderland was no place for three children. All she could do was follow the plan that she and Edward had come up with. They could let the game be fair, for once. They could let these children win.

Mara raised a hand and spun the wheel, watching it with nervous eyes. It turned and turned and turned, the vibrant colors that characterized Wonderland blurring and blending together into a mass of brightness. As it slowly ticked to a stop, Braden grabbed her hand and squeezed it. 

"Oh... Bad luck," mused Edward, looking at the skull that had come up. "Don't worry, don't worry, we're not going to  _kill_  you. How gauche. No. What this means is that at some point during the game, you're going to have a bit of bad luck. That's not too bad, now is it?"

Mara tried to look more confident than she felt.

"Yeah, that's... I can deal with a little bad luck."

* * *

Edward watched as the two children (and that's what they were, really) stood together and tried to ready themselves for the monster factory. He wanted to scream, to stop this, to do anything. He kept looking at the girl and seeing Lydia and it was tearing him apart in a way that no visitors to Wonderland had ever done before. He felt his sister's hand tighten on his arm and turned to look at her.

"There has to be something we can do. Eddie, look at them. He barely has first level spells."

He turned away from her and closed his eyes.

 "You think I don't know that?"

Two elven teenagers, standing alone against the world with a little boy at their backs. Their baby brother. He kept hearing the voices, all the healers who told them nothing could be done, all the priests who had offered cold platitudes and nothing else, all the people who had ever turned their backs on three orphans because one was sick. 

"Then rig the game. If they die-"

"You think I haven't thought of that?" He snapped at her and she pulled back. "I won't let him down, Lydia. I won't... I won't fail... Keats. Not a second time."

She was startled that he voiced their younger brother's name and her anger dissolved. She hugged him tightly and nodded into his shoulder.

"It won't be much longer and then things can go back to normal."

* * *

Mara's hands were covered in blood as she tried to staunch the flow of the gash on Braden's arm. It was deep. Deep enough that she was scared. What if she couldn't get the bleeding to stop? What if in trying to save Kyara, she lost Braden? But she somehow managed to get the bandages tied and they stayed in place as Braden sat up, looking a little less ashen. 

"Did we win?"

She got him to his feet, one arm around his waist. That wound was going to scar. So was the gash across her face from where her guard hadn't been good enough. Probably the bad luck they had mentioned. She turned towards him, trying not to wince as she looked into his now mismatched eyes. One was milk white from where they'd taken his sight. She limped as she supported him, walking towards the exit and their prize. None of their hurts mattered. Not since they had won. With the precious vial in hand, it was time to go home.

* * *

Edward felt sick as he watched them leave, felt a bitter regret that tasted of old ashes and memory clinging to the inside of him. He turned and pulled his sister into his arms, holding her tightly. She was still watching them go, staring down through ages untold at two different teenagers and pretending that this was a mirror in all things, pretending that Keats had lived.

"Let's take the rest of the day off."

Edward offered the idea quietly and she nodded, resting her forehead against his shoulder. 

"I miss him, Eddie."

"I know, Lili. I know."

Someday, they would have to find a way to face the mirrors that waited for them. But today was not that day. Today had been a trip in time that neither had wished for, a chance to view a mirror into their very selves. 


End file.
